Edney-esque win for Hickman

Watch video of Lyle Harris going the length of the court for the buzzer-beating

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If anyone knows this, it’s Missouri basketball fans that have Tyus Edney’s coast-to-coast dash against their beloved Tigers in the 1995 NCAA Tournament permanently etched in their brains.

Lyle Harris was 3 years old when Edney sent UCLA on its national-championship run by dribbling the length of the court in 4.8 seconds for a game-winning basket in Boise, Idaho.

Now 18, the Hickman senior provided his own Edney-esque ending last night during a Class 5 District 9 semifinal.

With the second-seeded Kewpies trailing third-seeded Troy Buchanan by one with 4.1 seconds remaining, Harris took an inbounds pass from Spenser Washington, quickly dribbled up the right side of the court and lofted a running 10-foot shot high off the backboard that dropped through the basket as the buzzer sounded.

Hickman 50, Troy Buchanan 49.

And Harris never had a doubt it would end any other way.

“My team was depending on me,” Harris said. “In my mind, I knew I was going to hit it. I wasn’t going to let my team down.

“You have to believe before you can achieve it.”

Hickman’s faith was wavering seconds earlier when Troy’s Neil Branham dribbled through the Kewpies defense for a driving basket that put the Trojans (18-9) in front with 4.1 seconds left.

Hickman (17-8) had led by as many as six points with 3:25 remaining, but poor free-throw shooting by the Kewpies allowed Troy to creep back into the game. Hickman shot 7 of 23 from the foul line, including 1 of 6 over the final three minutes of play.

Two misses by Marcus Whitt with 15 seconds remaining preceded Branham’s go-ahead bucket and had the Kewpies lamenting their luck from the line as they walked to the bench for a final timeout.

Although Harris had scored only six points to that point, Hickman Coach John Burns wanted the ball in his leading scorer’s hands for the final seconds.

“Lyle is our point guard, and he’s going to run that last play,” Burns said. “There are other options off that play, but I want Lyle making the decision.”

For Harris, there wasn’t much debate about what to do with the ball. With the scoreboard directly in front of him, he knew exactly how much time he had as he quickly dribbled up court.

“I had enough time,” Harris said. “I took a second to look at the clock at half court. I knew I had to let it go.”

Burns was confident his team would get a good look at the basket.

“We can lay it up in four seconds,” Burns said. “We practice that situation all the time. It wasn’t quite a layup but pretty close. We drew it up exactly like that, and the shot banked in.”

The way the game started, it didn’t appear the Kewpies would need a buzzer-beater to advance to their second consecutive district final. Hickman scored the first 10 points of the game, but Troy battled back on its home floor to close the score to 12-9 entering the second quarter. Hickman missed all four free throws it attempted in the second quarter to allow Troy to tie the game at 18 heading into halftime.

Whitt scored 10 of his game-high 15 points in the first half. Brown and Alex Keith played solid on the inside for the undersized Kewpies, providing 10 and four points, respectively. Derek Deters led three Trojans in double figures with 14 points.

The lead changed hands four times in the third quarter and was tied another three times before the Kewpies built margins as large as six points on three occasions in the fourth quarter.

Back-to back baskets by Bran-ham over the final 20 seconds gave Troy its only fourth-quarter lead before Harris advanced the Kewpies into tomorrow’s championship final against fourth-seeded Holt (20-7).

“We kept together,” Harris said. “Coach has been telling us all year to keep together and keep doing our job, and the outcome is going to be good. He was right.”